Mortgage interest rates in Europe soared in 2022 and remained elevated in 2023. In many countries, this resulted in interest rates more than doubling. In Denmark, the average mortgage interest rate rose from 0.67 percent in 2021 to 4.98 percent in 2023. Why did mortgage interest rates increase? Mortgage rates have risen as a result of the European Central Bank (ECB) interest rate increase. The ECB increased its interest rates to tackle inflation. As inflation calms, the ECB is expected to cut rates, which will allow mortgage lenders to reduce mortgage interest rates. What is the impact of interest rates on homebuying? Lower interest rates make taking out a housing loan more affordable, and thus, encourage homebuying. That can be seen in many countries across Europe: In France, the number of residential properties sold rose in the years leading up to 2021, and fell as interest rates increased. The number of houses sold in the UK followed a similar trend.

House prices grew year-on-year in most states in the U.S. in the third quarter of 2024. The District of Columbia was the only exception, with a decline of three percent. The annual appreciation for single-family housing in the U.S. was 0.71 percent, while in Hawaii—the state where homes appreciated the most—the increase exceeded 10 percent. How have home prices developed in recent years? House price growth in the U.S. has been going strong for years. In 2024, the median sales price of a single-family home exceeded 413,000 U.S. dollars, up from 277,000 U.S. dollars five years ago. One of the factors driving house prices was the cost of credit. The record-low federal funds effective rate allowed mortgage lenders to set mortgage interest rates as low as 2.3 percent. With interest rates on the rise, home buying has also slowed, causing fluctuations in house prices. Why are house prices growing? Many markets in the U.S. are overheated because supply has not been able to keep up with demand. How many homes enter the housing market depends on the construction output, whereas the availability of existing homes for purchase depends on many other factors, such as the willingness of owners to sell. Furthermore, growing investor appetite in the housing sector means that prospective homebuyers have some extra competition to worry about. In certain metros, for example, the share of homes bought by investors exceeded 20 percent in 2024.

Cumulative and monthly counts and rates of confirmed COVID-19 in Ottawa neighbourhoods, excluding cases linked to outbreaks in long-term care homes (LTCH) and retirement homes (RH). Based on the most up to date information available at 2pm from the COVID-19 Ottawa Database (The COD) on the day the data is pulled to provide the monthly update.

Accuracy: Points of consideration for interpretation of the data:

• Data extracted by Ottawa Public Health at 2pm from the COVID-19 Ottawa Database (The COD) the day prior to publication. The COD is a dynamic disease reporting system that allow for continuous updates of case information. These data are a snapshot in time, reflect the most accurate information that OPH has at the time of reporting, and the numbers may differ from other sources.

• A case (an individual with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infection) is assigned to an Ottawa Neighbourhood Study (ONS) geography based on the individual’s residential postal code and the ONS’s postal code conversion file. As the area served by a given postal code may cross multiple neighbourhoods, the ONS postal code conversion file identifies the proportion of each postal code that falls within a neighbourhood. Thus, for cases with postal codes falling within multiple neighbourhoods, a fraction of those cases will be assigned to each neighbourhood.

• Rates calculated from very low case numbers or for neighbourhoods with very small populations are unstable and should be interpreted with caution. Low case counts have very wide 95% confidence intervals, which are the lower and upper limit within which the true rate lies 95% of the time. A narrow confidence interval leads to a more precise estimate and a wider confidence interval leads to a less precise estimate. In other words, rates calculated from very low case numbers fluctuate so much that we cannot use them to compare different areas or make predictions over time.

Update Frequency: Monthly

Attributes: Data fields

• ONS Neighbourhood – text • Cumulative rate (per 100 000 population), excluding cases linked to outbreaks in LTCH and RH – cumulative number of residents with confirmed COVID-19 in a neighbourhood, excluding those linked to outbreaks in LTCH and RH, divided by the total population of that neighbourhood • Cumulative number of cases, excluding cases linked to outbreaks in LTCH and RH - cumulative number of residents with confirmed COVID-19 in a neighbourhood, excluding cases linked to outbreaks in LTCH and RH • Monthly rates (per 100 000 population), excluding cases linked to outbreaks in LTCH and RH –number of residents with confirmed COVID-19 in a neighbourhood reported to OPH during the month of interest, excluding those linked to outbreaks in LTCH and RH, divided by the total population of that neighbourhood. • Monthly number of cases reported, excluding cases linked to outbreaks in LTCH and RH - number of residents with confirmed COVID-19 in a neighbourhood reported to OPH during the month of interest, excluding cases linked to outbreaks in LTCH and RH.

Contact: OPH Epidemiology Team & Ottawa Neighbourhood Study Team | Epidemiology & Evidence, Ottawa Public Health

Geneva, Switzerland, was the most expensive city to buy an apartment in Europe in the first quarter of 2024. The square meter price in Geneva was nearly 15,650 euros in that quarter, about 2,000 euros higher than the second city in the ranking, Zurich. Cost of rent Rents across the major cities in Europe increased significantly in 2023. One of the main factors driving high rents across European cities is the same as any other consumer-driven business. If demand outweighs supply, prices will inflate. The drive for high paid professionals to be located centrally in prime locations, mixed with the low levels of available space, high land, and construction costs, all help keep rental prices increasing. Mortgage rates The average mortgage interest rates across Europe in 2023 were all under five percent, except in Czechia, Romania, Hungary, and Poland. On an individual level, a difference of one percent would most likely mean thousands of euros in interest on the mortgage a person is paying, making timing key in house purchasing. Mortgage interest rates tend to be lower in Nordic countries due to the financial stability and reliability of its borrowers. Other factors that influence the mortgage interest rates include inflation, economic growth, monetary policies, the bond market and the overall conditions of the housing market. More stable markets also tend to have higher average prices.

What is the average price of residential property in the Netherlands? In the third quarter of 2024, a single-family home cost approximately 434,000 euros. There were large differences between the Dutch provinces, however. Single-family homes were most expensive in the central province of Utrecht with an average price of 731,000 euros, whereas a similar house in Groningen had an average price tag of 384,000 euros. Overall, the average price a private individual would pay when buying any type of existing residential property (such as single-family homes but also, for example, an apartment) was approximately 416,000 euros in 2023. Do the Dutch prefer to buy or to rent a house? The Netherlands had a slightly higher homeownership rate (the share of owner-occupied dwellings of all homes) in 2023 than other countries in Northwestern Europe. About 70 percent of all Dutch houses were owned, whereas this percentage was lower in Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. This is an effect of past developments: the price to rent ratio (the development of the nominal purchase price of a house divided by the annual rent of a similar place with 2015 as a base year) shows that the gap between house prices and rents has continuously widened in recent years. Despite a slight decline in the ratio due to slowing house price growth and accelerating rental growth, in 2023, the cost of buying a home had grown significantly faster relative to the cost of renting. Mortgages in the Netherlands Additionally, the Netherlands has one of the highest mortgage debts among private individuals in Europe. In 2024, total debt exceeded 839 billion euros. This has a political background, as the Dutch tax system allowed homeowners for many years to deduct interest paid on mortgage from pre-tax income for a maximum period of thirty years, essentially allowing for income support for homeowners. In the Netherlands, this system is known as hypotheekrenteaftrek. Note that since 2014, the Dutch government is slowly scaling this down, with a planned acceleration from 2020 onwards.

House prices in the historical center of Rome were, unsurprisingly, the highest in the whole city. Indeed, residential properties in the city center could fetch on average 8,051 euros per square meter. This figure is more than double the average price for a residential property recorded in the entire city. Pricey districts in Italy Rome is not the only city in Italy where many people would want to live, with fancy and attractive districts. In fact, Milan is the city that boasts the districts with the highest prices in the country. Furthermore, the districts of San Marco and Rialto in Venice are also very on demand: a residential property in the most central areas of the city island cost over 5,000 euros per square meter. Residential real estate in Italy House prices in Italy decreased steadily since 2012, and so did interest rates on new mortgage loans. These favorable conditions brought new life to the residential real estate market in the country. The number of transactions increased steadily after reaching an all-time low in 2013. Moreover, low prices in many Italian cities attract individuals interested in purchasing residential real estate for investment.

Rent prices per square meter in the largest Dutch cities have been on an upward trend after a slight decline in 2020. Amsterdam remained the most expensive city to live in, averaging a monthly rent of 27.6 euros per square meter for residential real estate in the private rental sector. Monthly rents in Utrecht were around six euros cheaper per square meter. Both cities were above the average rent price of residential property in the Netherlands overall, whereas Rotterdam and The Hague were slightly below that. Buying versus renting, what do the Dutch prefer? The Netherlands is one of Europe’s leading countries when it comes to homeownership, having funded this with a mortgage. In 2023, around 60 percent of people living in the Netherlands were homeowners with a mortgage. This is because Dutch homeowners were able to for many years to deduct interest paid from pre-tax income (a system known in the Netherlands as hypotheekrenteaftrek). This resulted in the Netherlands having one of the largest mortgage debts across the European continent. Total mortgage debt of Dutch households reached a value of approximately 803 billion euros in 2023. Is the Dutch housing market overheating? There are several indicators for the Netherlands that allow to investigate whether the housing market is overheating or not. House price indices corrected for inflation in the Netherlands suggest, for example, that prices have declined since 2022. The Netherlands’ house-price-to-rent-ratio, on the other hand, has exceeded the pre-crisis level in 2019. These figures, however, are believed to be significantly higher for cities like Amsterdam, as it was suggested for a long time that the prices of owner-occupied houses were increasing faster than rents in the private rental sector.